Daniel: Far From Homeنموونە

Daniel now prays to the covenant God. He acknowledges the rightness of the Lord’s prior judgement on Judah. God has been right to bring the exile. In verses 4 to 6, Daniel has got his thesaurus out – ‘sinned, done wrong, wicked, rebelled’. But he explains how this happened. By ‘[turning] away from your commands and laws’ and then not listening to His prophets. Judah had rejected the word of God. This is not new theology here from Daniel. What he is confessing is what we have all done since the Garden of Eden. Rejecting the word of God is sin.

In verse 7 we see the right judgement of God on sin. He ‘scattered’ the people. Just as God had scattered humankind in the judgement of Babel, so He has done in judgement on Judah’s (and Israel’s) unfaithfulness. In both verses 7 and 8 Daniel calls this judgement ‘shame’. And in verses 8 to 11a he spells out repeatedly the rightness of God to bring this about. However, Daniel also knows that the Lord is merciful and forgiving.

In verses 11b to 14 Daniel acknowledges three times that the people had been warned that exile would be the judgement for disobedience. Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 had been crystal clear – ‘…if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands… then I will do this to you’ (Lev 26:14–16). Having issued the warning, God would not have been righteous if He hadn’t carried it out.

In verses 15 to 19 we hear Daniel’s petition. As he continues to acknowledge the people’s sin, he now pleads for the Lord to ‘turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem’ (v. 16), to ‘look with favour on your desolate sanctuary’ (v. 17), and to ‘forgive’ (v. 19). However, the focus of his prayer is centred on the Lord’s ‘name’. He begins his petition by remembering that the rescue from Egypt centuries earlier ‘made for yourself a name’. The Lord’s name is a reflection of who He truly is. Jerusalem and the people bear the Lord’s name. And so Daniel prays that the Lord would act ‘for [His] sake’.

In the New Testament, Jesus teaches that our prayers should first focus on God’s name, His reputation. ‘Father, hallowed be your name’ (Luke 11:2) Further, the apostle Paul tells us that God’s rescue of us through the gospel is also ‘for his name’s sake’ (Rom. 1:5).

Reflection

Do we acknowledge our sinfulness in our prayers? Do we acknowledge that judgement is what we rightly deserve from the Lord? How far is our praying motivated by a deep concern for the name and reputation of the Lord?